Experimenter

Michael Almereyda

The writer-director, Michael Almereyda, clearly sees his protagonist as a master of stagecraft as well as psychology, and he gives the movie a whiff of the circus — a gorgeous, photo¬realist circus, often against tinted black-and-white backdrops that push its ringmaster into the foreground. Milgram talks to us, shows us things. He puts his work in historical context. He expounds on the role of obedience in turning individuals into instruments of the state — as in Nazi Germany. The word reflective suggests a slowdown or cessation of action proper, but Experimenter is busily, thrillingly reflective. Its artificiality makes it seem even more alive, more in the present tense.
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Sarsgaard brings out every bit of tension between Milgram’s humanism and clinical objectivity. (…) Sarsgaard has a delightful partner in Winona Ryder as Milgram’s wife, who can’t wait to roll up her sleeves and feel what it’s like to be shocked.

Experimenter is uncannily beautiful. Production designer Deana Sidney creates a palette of blue-grays and cool greens that’s like a Platonic dream of social science before the counterculture blew out the walls. Bryan Senti’s music finds a balance between scientific detachment and sorrow over the human capacity for cruelty, with a hint of Jewishness in the lachrymose violins.